


P, G, & E

by Tamasha



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Angst, Confessions, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Gay, Happy Ending, Jealousy, Kissing, Loss, Love, M/M, Male Slash, Mental Health Issues, Modern Era, Relationship(s), Romance, Sad, Suicide, Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-19 01:16:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3590877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamasha/pseuds/Tamasha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percival moves to Los Angeles to forget his past and ends up finding a way to accept it. (Perwaine-centric)</p>
            </blockquote>





	P, G, & E

**Author's Note:**

> written by Natasha

The first time he slept with Gwaine, it had been more out of stubbornness than anything. The second time, once he knew what he was in for, it had largely been because of lust. Percival told himself there would not be a third time.

Percival had been living in Asheville, TN, teaching at a private high school as a physical education teacher. He had been seeing the same people, doing the same things he had all his life, and suddenly, it was too much.

He wanted new people in his life, a change of pace, someplace where he could really move forward instead of being held back by habit, memories, and expectations. He had to get out. So he tried for the biggest change possible.

He found a job at an inner city public school in central L.A. They needed a history teacher, but he could volunteer as a football coach, they assured him. It was that or the girl’s swim team. He found a tiny studio apartment near the school and then he bought a ticket to sunny Los Angeles, filled with Hollywood starlets, right next to the beach.

Percival met his coworker Gwaine at back-to-school night and he thought to himself, since he was turning over a new leaf, he might as well go all the way. The farthest he could get from Emily was this: a one-night stand with a man.

Two days later, he received a booty call from the man and he accepted without hesitation. After the sex, though, they hung out, and Percival found that he actually enjoyed Gwaine’s company, wild and spontaneous as he was. In fact, this might be the exact change he was looking for.

School started, and Percival saw Gwaine with another coworker, a female this time. Though there had been no expectation of commitment, Percival was somewhat taken aback. He found out soon that this was normal behavior for the man. Percival reconciled himself to a friendship without benefits. Gwaine did not like to become close to those he considered his “fuck buddies” but Percival valued a friendship more than a chance for sex.

 

~~~---~~~

 

A lonely Christmas passed while Percival really started to settle into the motion of the big city. The day after Christmas, Gwaine called him up. “What are you doing, Percy?” he asked, his words already a little slurred, though it was only five o’clock.

“Not much.”

“You better come with us, then!” he shouted. Percival heard a distinct giggle in the background. He sighed and glanced at his watch, as though it mattered. He didn’t have anything else to do.

“Where are you going?” he asked mildly. He didn’t bother asking who “we” was. Gwaine always had a flock of people following him around.

“The beach! Get ready and be at my house in half an hour.” Gwaine hung up, leaving Percival no chance to protest. He smiled to himself, though. He still had not been to the beach, though he had lived here for months now.

Decided, he moved to his dresser and stared at it, wondering what sort of outfit was appropriate. He ended up leaving his worn jeans on, because they were comfortable. He slipped on a purple t-shirt and some flip flops and then sat down to play with his phone for five minutes. He didn’t want to show up too early.

 

~~~---~~~

 

“Percival!” Sophia greeted when he walked into Gwaine’s apartment. She was the only woman he recognized from work. The other two introduced themselves as Eira and Elena. Elena was a cheerful girl who didn’t seem so focused on her looks and she was the one sitting on Gwaine’s lap when he walked in. Gwaine lifted her off and came to hook his arm around Percival’s.

“I couldn’t handle three of them on my own. I had to bring you over to help!” he whispered theatrically. He was already sober. Percival gave him a quick smile, wondering if he should have come.

Before he could say anything, though, the girls were packed into the back of Gwaine’s car and he was holding the door open gallantly for Percival. “After you, Percy.”

Percival had to chuckle as he got in. Gwaine was the only one to call him Percy, and though he had not requested the nickname, he liked it coming out of Gwaine’s mouth. On anyone else’s tongue however, it sounded childish.

Elena sat behind Gwaine’s seat, rubbing his shoulders and flirting the whole way to the beach. Eira joined in, so Sophia and Percival started their own conversation about the students that they shared. They pulled into the parking lot and while the girls moved to the trunk to pull out their bags of snacks and chairs to sit on, Percival excused himself to wander over to the water.

It was impressive. He had seen the ocean on his flight down here and obviously, he had seen it in movies and pictures. Still, seeing the deep blue stretching to the end of the horizon was impressive. The low crash of wave after wave lulled him as he watched.

After a moment, he noticed Gwaine standing next to him. Percival glanced at him. "Swimming is better in the summer," Gwaine said suddenly, breaking the enchantment. "But a good bonfire or someone to cuddle with will keep you warm in winter. Never gets too cold around here."

Percival chuckled. "Well, it's a good thing you brought the women," he said, though he had no intention of cuddling with any of them.

Gwaine shrugged and put a hand on Percival’s shoulder. "A little romance wouldn't hurt you, you know." Percival jerked his head to look at his friend, but Gwaine was still looking out at the ocean. A little romance... that could hurt much more than he was willing to risk. Besides, he wasn't attracted to any of those women. Or to any at all, really. There had only been one. When Percival didn’t respond, Gwaine’s hand slipped down, suddenly resting on the small of his back. It felt like fire, but Percival tried not to flinch. "It's Christmas, Percy," he said, his voice low.

Percival stepped back, unable to process all the sensations buzzing through his body. He had not realized Gwaine still cared about sex with him. Why did he? "I'll be okay," he managed awkwardly and left Gwaine gaping at him.

 

~~~---~~~

 

Getting turned down was not new for Gwaine. It didn't happen often, but when you swing at almost every opportunity, no matter how good you are at swinging, there are always some misses. Somehow, though, he was not familiar with this odd feeling in his stomach accompanying the rejection.

In an attempt to cover up the feeling, he walked back to the women, who had set up near a fire pit. Elyan had arrived and was amusing them, but Gwaine cut in with a confident smile and pulled Elena toward him. He planted his lips on hers and she kissed him back with an eagerness that made him acutely uncomfortable. He ignored it and continued.

Elena was a friend, but Gwaine could always come to her for sex, because she would never fall in love. She, like him, enjoyed her freedom immensely. Sometimes, it was just nice to enter familiar territory, and that was Elena. She always welcomed him and never clung when he left. Lately, they had been together enough that friends were starting to refer to them as a couple. Gwaine didn’t even care. He and Elena were on the same page, and that was all that mattered.

So why was she so eager in her kiss? Maybe it had been a while. He was overthinking things. "Okay, Gwaine, Elena." Eira's voice cut into his thoughts. He pulled away from Elena, and caught her raised brow. Then, he turned to Eira, who was clearly jealous, though she tried to pass it off as playful. "I think you've had enough."

"Gwaine’s never had enough," Elena offered flatly. Gwaine laughed, and tried not to look for Percival.

"You want some too, Eira?" He barely gave her time for a response before he started kissing her. Maybe this was the trick to getting rid of that odd feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Suddenly, he felt a smack on the head. Sophia. He frowned at her, but she frowned right back. "You're disgusting, Gwaine. At least wait till we don't all have to watch." Gwaine cleared his throat and stepped away from the ladies. Eira was bright red. Elena was digging through a cooler, apparently unaffected by his loose behavior. She was used to it.

"Ho, Gwaine, Elyan!" Lance called as he approached from down the beach. He was a math teacher from the school and he held hands with Gwen, his fiancee. She taught choir. Gwaine jogged over to welcome them and finally, the odd feeling faded, as he got distracted by his friends.

 

~~~---~~~

 

Percival came back to his group after a walk down the beach. He didn’t know what had taken hold of him, but he was ready to be social now. More people, mostly coworkers, had gathered and a fire had been built.

His boss, a young blond man, was standing near the flames, holding hands with another man Percival did not recognize. He had not talked with his own principal much and he did not want to start over a bonfire on the beach, so he moved to the other side. "Percival!" Sophia called when she saw him. She waved him over.

Gwaine was sitting nearby with Elena curled up against him. Percival relaxed, seeing Gwaine occupied with someone else again.

"Where have you been?" Sophia asked. Percival shrugged.

"Bathroom," he lied. He had passed a port-a-potty on his walk, though. Sophia took his word and he eased into the banter of the night without much trouble.

It was a couple hours into the night and Percival was happily buzzed and staring at the clouds that drifted across the starless L.A. sky. Gwaine had been somewhere else for a while, but he materialized now and plopped down next to Percival on his back.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable today," he said finally. Percival couldn’t think of a way to dismiss the issue without encouraging it, so he said nothing. After a stretch of silence, Gwaine had to fill it. Very quietly, he said, "I didn’t realize you would be so opposed..."

Percival snorted. "I'm not opposed," he clarified. "I just don't think it will go anywhere. It's probably better if we just stay friends, Gwaine." That was not what he meant to say, not exactly, but it was close enough, and he got the odd feeling that Gwaine already knew everything he was going to say.

"It wouldn’t go anywhere..." Gwaine mused. "Is it supposed to go somewhere? It's just sex."

Percival wondered how drunk Gwaine was. He always drank a lot, but he also held his alcohol very well. Percival himself was a large man and did not get drunk easily, but he may have passed that line. Neither of them was too drunk to make sense, though. Maybe just drunk enough to let go of their inhibitions? Percival put his hands to his head. "I never knew how to let it be "just sex". With Emily, it was everything. So with you..." he trailed off, uneasy now that he had said Emily's name aloud. It was as if she did not belong here. His two worlds were abruptly on on a collision course. He tried to focus.

Gwaine turned his head and their eyes met. "With me, you found it difficult to let it mean nothing?" He asked simply. Percival just looked at him, a little lost, and realized all at once how much more than nothing that sex had meant.

Emily had been the love of his life. He was going to marry her and grow old with her. So when they started having sex, he was building something with her. He put all of himself into it. He lost himself when he lost her.

Years later, when he tried to go for a crazy one night stand, he instead found himself again in Gwaine. Percival stared into Gwaine’s eyes now, unable to vocalize the enormity of what he had just discovered. Gwaine licked his lips. "I let it mean something too." Percival gave him a look that said: what are we going to do? Eventually, they both went back to looking at the clouds.

 

~~~---~~~

 

Though he woke up with an angry hangover, Gwaine remembered every detail about last night. He lie in bed the next morning, wishing he didn't.

Gwaine had always hooked up with as many people as he could manage. He wanted to meet a wide range, get to know what kind of person he really liked. As it turned out, he liked all kinds of people. He had always told himself he would settle down, if the right one came along. Then, as the years passed, he had brushed the thought aside.

There were no soul mates; there was no true love. There were just people and their feelings and the choices they made. That's what he had discovered in his life. Meeting Percival didn’t make that untrue, but it certainly gave him a new perspective on the feelings aspect of that truth.

Things with Percival were not just about sex. They went deeper. They were friends. But he wasn’t a friend like Elena or Merlin, whom he also had a history with. Percival had undoubtedly carved out his own category, right in the place that Gwaine avoided letting most people into.

Gwaine groaned loudly and then winced in pain. He wasn’t really making sense and he needed a good burger to wake up. He glanced at the clock. 1:18 PM. Without giving it much thought, he called the first number on his recent calls list.

"Hey Percy. I've got a bitch of a hangover."

"Mmm," Percival groaned. Gwaine assumed he had woken up his friend. He grinned to himself.

"Come to In-N-Out with me?" he asked as cheerfully as he could, just to irritate Percival.

"I just woke up, Gwaine," he said in protest. He already sounded much better, though, and Gwaine pictured him stretching as he rolled out of bed.

"Meet you in ten minutes, then? I'll pick you up."

"Are you even out of bed yet?" Percival’s voice sounded muffled, as if he was putting on a shirt.

Gwaine rolled over in his bed, looking towards the door of his studio apartment. "I could be..."

Percival made a noise of contempt. "I'll pick you up, then. And lunch is on me." The thoughtless offer gave Gwaine pause. Percival probably remembered last night too. Their talk. And the way Gwaine had made out with Elena on the way home.

"Yeah..." he said slowly. "Sure, thanks." He hung up then, and stared at the picture of Percival, laughing and unaware, his phone presented to him until the screen went black.

 

~~~---~~~

 

Percival knocked on the door and then waited patiently while Gwaine dragged himself out of bed. When he opened the door, wearing his clothes from last night, hair mussed, and bags under his eyes, Percival involuntarily reached out and pulled him into a hug.

Just holding him there felt so good. Gwaine didn’t try to get away and Percival wasn’t ready to let go yet. He propped his chin on top of Gwaine’s head.

After an indeterminate amount of time, they pulled back at the same time and Percival said, "Let's go," while Gwaine started saying, "Why don’t we -"

He stopped when Percival did and laughed. "Yes, let's," he said. "I'm starving."

They drove to the In-N-Out and ordered their food without speaking to each other. It wasn't until they sat down with their food that Gwaine tried again.

"You said last night," he said in between bites, "That you were not opposed to sleeping with me, you just didn’t think it would go anywhere. What if we made plans for it to go somewhere?"

Percival had only ordered fries, and now he watched Gwaine closely while his friend singlemindedly filled his stomach. Gwaine did not often get serious, but this was twice in as many days. He cleared his throat. "I'm not sure that's even an option, with you dating Elena," he said simply.

Gwaine looked up, eyes almost hurt. "I'm not dating her," he said defensively.

"Right," Percival corrected himself. "Just sleeping with her." It didn't even bother him as much as it should, if he did want to pursue this. It was just Gwaine’s way, nothing more. But Elena... she wasn't just a passing partner. Percival was not sure how much more she was to Gwaine, who was now grimacing.

"Percy..." he hesitated and Percival was certain he had no excuse to offer. He was surprised when Gwaine said, "It's you I really want. Elena just masks the disappointment some." He took another big bite while Percival masticated on this new information. "I don't need her, or anyone else. In fact, I don't want them. I'll show you, Percy. Let me take you out on a date. A real date, no sex, just us."

Percival bit his lip as he felt his heart flutter. "You couldn’t last dating anyone with no sexual release," he said faintly, only half joking.

Gwaine’s face got very solemn. "Percival Lot, for you I would do anything." He said it dramatically to make Percival laugh, and Percival did, but he also noticed that Gwaine was dead serious. What had he gotten himself into?

However, despite his avoidant thought patterns he had cultivated, he was excited. He was discussing dating Gwaine Green. Romantically! However long Gwaine ended up lasting without sex, Percival was not sure he could match it, not if he was dating the miserable-looking man in front of him now. He smiled.

"Percy... what happened with Emily?" Gwaine asked hesitantly, wiping the smile off his face.

Percival let out a slow breath. It was a fair question, if they were to start their own relationship. He closed his eyes and dipped into his memories.

"I met Emily in high school. We both knew beyond a doubt that we wanted to spend our lives together, so I proposed on graduation day. She said yes, but she made me promise that we would both finish college before the wedding.

"I stayed at home my freshman year, while her parents paid for her to stay in the dorms. Living on her own was difficult for her, and she started to struggle with depression. It came on so suddenly... one day, we were looking into counseling, and the next... I got a call from her roommate. She was pretty hysterical, but I managed to get the story from her: Emily had hung herself." Percival opened his eyes and came back to the present. He didn’t want to go into after. After was a dark and hopeless territory. But Gwaine was hope.

Gwaine looked at him, his eyes sad and full of compassion. His hand moved across the table to cover Percival’s. Percival let the smile creep back onto his face. "It was a long time ago, Gwaine. I'm okay. I loved her, but now I love..." He widened his eyes, acutely aware of the unprecedented words he had almost said. Gwaine raised both brows expectantly. Percival laughed. "Well, let's just see if you can manage a few days without sex first."

Gwaine raised his chin and said, "Challenge accepted." Los Angeles was going to turn out all right.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was Natasha's first Gwaine/Percival fic. This pairing is our favorite pairing of the minor characters from the show.


End file.
